Glassy:
My continious progress on Silver moves and camel spin! Can't wait to show Primary Coach tomorrow that as well as the lowered sitspin!!

Rutted:
Since everyone is back in school, the freestyles are back to being a mixed zoo!
Can't get the gumption to jump on the flip jump. I do the three turn, check draw back and UGH!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Glassy-
Back spins were centered today.
The kids are back in school and the public session I have my lesson on literally had 2 other skaters on it.

Rutted-
My loop has taken a vacation.
Flip and lutz were both in the building but felt wonky.

__________________
Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Boot issues:
Rutted My boot completely came unlaced during synchro- WAY scary. Another skater noticed it before I did, and I'm glad, because when I switched my weight, after she said something, I had a hard time balancing at all- I would have really hurt myself if we were moving! What's weird- the laces were nicely double knotted still, they just fell off ALL the hooks. I have NEVER had that happen before.
Glassy Skating two sessions in a row (both Tuesday and Wednesday) the second session is so much nicer in the boots. Since they are all stretched out from right before! It feels roomy instead of squished! I really hope that all this skating helps make my boots stretch a bit more, permanently. Or at least wears them out so I can get new ones that fit right.

Freeskating:
Glassy My one foot spin is slowly evolving into a proper scratch spin. I feel like I'm actually jumping when I do half-flips and waltz jumps now. (Might not actually be getting high- but it feels like I do. No more just stepping around and calling it a jump!)
Rutted Salchow was awful last night. Backspin is getting nowhere.

Synchro:
Glassy SO MUCH FUN! I'm so so glad I've finally been able to do this- I've wanted to since I was a little kid, when I didn't even skate. We started learning our program, and for the most part it's going well. The coach did a great job placing me, between or next to really strong skaters, which is going to help a lot.
Rutted CRUD- that left to right mohawk is going to come back to haunt me. We have L to R and R to L in the program so far- guess which one is done going REALLY fast, and which one is done going at a more normal speed. Yep the one I can barely do inching along is done WAY fast. I've got something to practice now! I'm also currently the weak link in the traveling circle- I'm not cutting in fast enough, and losing a shoulder hold on the girl next to me, it got better after a few tries, but still not too good

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Rutted: Ringette this morning - flood started late - didn't get on the ice until nearly 7:15 - head coach was fit to be tied - swore she'd move the Competitive Training Centre to a rink where figure skating doesn't get sh*t on all the time - wherever the Training Centre goes, I go to!

Had a small cut on the inside of my left ankle (how the he!! did I do that???) that my boot was rubbing on - had to go find a band-aid to cover the cut - much better.

Coach came in to work on jumps and spins.

Glassy: Upright spin continues to improve and coach complimented me on a couple - nice neat SINGLE circle left on the ice Sit spin is coming but still scary fast and not well centred! Worked on Waltz jump - need stronger turn on takeoff, more JUMP! - but a few had good height. Just touched on Toe Loop and Waltz/Toe.

Rutted: Need more work on LBO edge!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Glassy: The university is back in session now, and I've already heard that we will have ice beginning on September 17th! Can't wait!

Also can't wait until my new boots and blades arrive - woo hoo! Should be toward the end of September if the fitter's prediction is accurate.

__________________
Bill Schneider

Glassy: Did freestyle elements this morning. Spins are definitely coming along nicely. Ventured into jumps all the way up to loop Tried loop at one lesson over the summer and that was it until now. Although I am trying the entry from inside 3 turn which seems to help immensely. The other way I kept turning it into a salchow because I want to take off with my left foot not my right. Landed a couple extremely cheated, slightly 2 footed loops, but there was jump in the jump, if that makes sense.

Rutted: Landings on most everything needs work. Need to hold entry edge for spins a whole lot longer. Other than that not much.

__________________
~Always Dream!~

Check my progress at www.freewebs.com/sk8tegirl06

Rutted: Pain in the muscles and ligaments around my right hip/thigh/pelvis has escalated this week after I tripped on one of those parking humps at the mall the other day - really jammed everything. Cimbing stairs is difficult, putting weight on one leg is difficult, and so skating today was, well, what can I say? There isn't much you can do with one good leg, but I did okay. Just worked on some figures and edges and turns and mostly gossiped with my friend and critiqued her dances. Hard to demonstrate things like extension and quickness of feet when you can hardly skate, but I tried anyway.

Some more ruts: The zamboni was broken yesterday and so we had no ice. Luckily my coach called before I left in the morning and I recognized her phone number on the caller ID so I knew it was her and listened to the message before I left the house (I don't always do that, but something made me go and look at the phone... that little person sitting on my shoulder that always knows... anyway...) -- of course the rink managers didn't bother to call the hockey team that came to practice in the early hours which used to be our freestyle, and they were fit to be tied...

Glassy: Thinking that their anger may turn them off to buying ice at this time of day, given the level of customer service they are experiencing - bringing the whole team down at 6:30 in the morning and then told they couldn't skate because the ice was too rutted even for them!! So maybe we'll get our freestyle sessions back and everyone will be happy except the crazy management, who basically just do not get it.

More glassy: Having the kids back to school and a bunch of slow, calm adult skaters on the ice with no hockey lessons in sight: priceless!!

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

When I started skating synchro (or precision team back in the day!), it improved my basic skating so much. I guess it's because it forced me to work on things I didn't otherwise work on (like left to right mohawks). And it definitely teaches you to skate faster.
Have fun

Glassy:
My lesson with Primary Coach,who I hadn't had a lesson with in uh two weeks. After doing some Silver moves, forward, backscratch and sit spin ( the spins ROCKED too!), the dialogue went like this:
Coach: "Okay waltz jumps, three in a row"
Terri:"Uh, no, there is one more spin"
Coach: "That is ? "
Terri:"The camel"
Coach: "Wow ( ). okay, let's see it"
Yes I have a camel spin in the making!!

Rutted:
Was not feeling well today. so left the ice early.

General question: Does anyone seen a problem with skaters not paying for freestyle before getting on the ice? We're having this issue right now.

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Glassy
Loop and flip jump made an appearance or two during my lesson!!! And this is using the setup for my FS program too!!! A little hesitant and slow, but it worked!!! YAAAAAY!!!

Rutted:

Too bad for me, it didn't make an appearance during my runthru of my FS program. In fact, just about everything else didn't make an appearance during my run thru. Oh, dear... so much for double run-thrus... I can't even make it thru the first one. HEEEEELP!!!!

Then I made an even bigger fool of myself showing what little I remembered of my artistic program and show the small changes that my secondary coach suggested for me. The arm gesture was right, but I didn't make eye contact. Primary coach says "Why are you looking at the ice??? LOOK AT ME when you're doing that!!!" Yeah, riiiiight! Like I'm gonna go and do a flirty "come hither" gesture at my primary coach!! I don't think so!!!

Alright, maybe I should have made a small one since poor primary coach has back problems and couldn't skate b/c of it. Of course, he did managed to move around with his shoes on the ice to yank me to the right place in the program anyway...

Glassy
First thing, congrats to Terri on her camel progress

Did a nice (for me anyway) camel in position towards the end of the lesson. I only got a couple of revs in before I flopped out of it! Earlier during my warmup for my lesson, I did a bunch of them that were there in revs (3-4 revs, in fact) but the position was sucky. On that note, I played around a little with brackets near the wall (keeping my promise to keep practicing it for my NYC coach) before easing myself off the ice to a bench to collapse!!!

Well, we don't have that option! There's always someone at the front and if you don't sign in and pay, you don't get it... PERIOD!!! (Security door can only be unlocked from the guy/gal at the ticket booth.) However, at times when the door is unlocked, there is an honor system thing where we have to sign up on the sign up list (that also acts as a legal waiver for the rink) and then it's "honor system" to go pay them. (There's a signature that the person at the ticket booth signs to show that you have paid for the session.) Of course, they could also look out on the ice and see who signed up and who didn't too.

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Yup. Happens a lot here at our loosely run rink. Sometimes the cashier (always a student who's half-interested in working) will go to the gate and ask for payment/coupon. Sometimes they don't care or won't bother - especially if they are late to the job and we're already on the ice.

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Bill Schneider

At the one rink I skated at most of the time the last few years, you paid at the front desk and signed in. You were also supposed to annotate your receipt and put the receipt in the front of the notebook for that rink (it's a 2-sheet facility). The ice monitor would collect the notebook from the front desk and check names vs. heads vs. receipts. The management would include a list of skaters who had paid for intense ice also so that their names could be marked off as necessary.

Occasionally a few people would slip through.

At the other rink, the ice monitor maintained the punch cards and the sign-in sheet. And they would keep very close track of who was on the ice and how many. If you didn't have a punch card, you had to pay at the front desk and give the receipt to the ice monitor before you could get on the ice.

Early mornings when there were only a few skaters were fairly laid back at both rinks.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Gosh- sometimes its hard to FIND someone to pay at our rink. I KNOW there are plenty of skaters who don't pay for each session they skate (just stay on the ice) and probably a good number who don't pay at all.

No wonder the rink thinks it doesn't make much money.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

this is for wednesday night, when i had my FIRST LESSON OF THE SEASON!!!!

Rutted: When I got on the ice, my balance was off a bit...the fake ice forces you to push from the back part of the blade. And pitches you back further more on the heel. So, I felt tippy...it took about an hour before I felt at ease (sort of). I ran through my stuff but could not spin...still!!!

Glassy: Lesson time came, coach had me run through: alternating crossovers, small things to tweak on those; waltz jump-coach commented that it was "springy"!!! yay!; then we went to my arm position, which went from front/back to a more side/side; my salchow and toe-loop needed fixing because of the 3-turn. This was done by getting that darn free leg, which wants to sneak around to the front, to stay BEHIND the skating leg. Once that was done, the 3-turns were more controlled, and the jumps were better (meaning-i could hold the back part of the 3).

Worked on the scratch spin...and after looking and analyzing she had me step out and push down on my heel. Once I did that, I was able to glide more and get on the proper edge.

the highlight was showing her my backspin!!!!! I had moved my blade over during the plastic ice show (about 1/8 in) and it helped a lot!!! I got about 3 revolutions!!!

All-in-all, it was a great 1st lesson of the new season. I still have lots of work to do.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

we don't have freestyle sessions any longer, just public and club, but on public daytime sessions it's hard to find someone to take your money, they don't give you an armband or a receipt....so there is no proof that you paid (or didn't).

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Sometimes the guy is not there for public freestyle and I just go ahead and skate because he knows me...he remembers if I paid or not. And he knows I'll see him the next day. There just aren't that many people around so you'd be noticed.

Now about club ice, people could probably do walk ons without paying. The ice monitor is supposed to have a list of who has contracted ice and is supposed to take the walk on money. That never happens. I've been an ice monitor and I've never seen a list. And when I do walk on, I stick the money in a box for the treasurer with a note. And sometimes it will be a day or two later before I pay for it. It's kind of an honor system.

j

Glassy: Back chassés worked better today. Good edges all round, really. Solo, 3-turn exercises worked well, for some reason, although could use a better check.

Rutted: Waltz hold with me going forwards, him going backwards - we simply cannot stay close together, I'm sure it's because he sticks his *rse out when going backwards.

Once he'd gone I tried some Circle Cycle exercises, but the elites make them look so easy you forget they aren't! And so I ended up all bent over and with my shoulders any old where and grinding to a halt!

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

glassy - salchow and toe loop are both showing progress. I'm starting to believe I could really have them one day.

rutted - backspins, one was so unbalanced I fell over and sprawled on the ice

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It's all about the dress!

I've never heard of a Circle Cycle exercise. You've got me curious.

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Bill Schneider

Circle Cycle is the brainchild of Annie Schelter, I think it's part of the Annie's Edges series.

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

glassy: Started learning the cherry flip and salchow, had a great lesson, even managed 3jump-cherry, and 3jump-slachow.

Rutted: mid lesson, was stood still and for some reason just fell right over backwards. Now suffering from a very painful sprained wrist and sore elbow. (even if it was almost worth it to have done those jumps...)

__________________
Level one Field Moves......PASSED 05.06.08
Level one Free dance.....PASSED 02.10.08

GOALS FOR 2009

• Level One Compulsary dances.......PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Elements.....................PASSED 10.07.09
• Level Two Free dance.................PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Free...........................
• Level Two compulsory dances.......

Loving it, Loving it, Loving it!!!!!

This happens at my rink, too - nobody pays attention to who pays and who doesn't and most of us have gotten into the habit of paying as we leave - we don't pay if the ice is unskatable (which you realized once you've gone out there) or if there is a HUGE groups of kids (school trips, etc.) that show up on the public sessions.

They used to have a front desk person who kept track of who paid and if she saw you going out the door without paying, she would definitely let you know but since she retired, they have gotten more lax. Of course she was there 18 years and so the management probably never realized what a tight ship she ran, really, despite her nice, laid-back demeanor...

The one good thing about their laxity is that I can "float" between sessions and only pay for one - say if the freestyle starts at 8 and I get on the ice at 8:45 or 9 and then stay through the public session but skip the last hour of it, then I really am only skating for less than two hours... I like that about the rink - I can make my own schedule basically and so far don't have to pay for two sessions since I am only skating part of each session - and it's not like they do an ice-cut for the public which follows the morning freestyle, so I feel justified.

No so at other rinks in my area, or so I am told...

__________________
Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

I took an Annie's Edges class a few years ago, but don't recall Circle Cycle. Exactly what is it?

Glassy:
Had my first lesson since June! Coach could see what a difference my new boots are making! Alternating FI threes are actually not that bad, I just need enough confidence to keep from tapping the free foot to the ice for one second right before the turn. One foot spin was pretty nice, with DH catching one on his camera that was 6 revs and nicely controlled. Got my very first full rev back spin (as opposed to the one months ago in the old skates that was mostly on the toe pick), and DH took a pic of the tracing . Coach told me that the variation on B cross strokes that I had seen a high level skater warm up with, is indeed a more advanced version of the move, and that I did it pretty well.

Rutted:
Coach agreed with me that lack of core body strength is hampering my alternating FO threes. Rutted but not too deeply: I didn't feel great on the ice today but still managed to accomplish all I set out to.

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Glassy -
Loops and flips were clean.

Rutted-
Bronze moves were horrendous today. Literally did a backwards roll on the ice on intro steps. The rest went downhill from there.
Backspin was centered when coach was gone. With coach present in lesson, I couldn't get more than 2 revolutions out of it.

__________________
Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Glassy: glad to be back for a little bit more today...had a 1 hour "freebie" club skate. Things are starting to feel more at ease. got freshly sharpened skates, so that helped. Had an "almost-back-to-my-old-self" scratch spin!!! and played you-do-it-then-i-do-it with a very young skater and some waltz jumps!!! It was fun. Tried to squeeze it all into an hour...managed pretty well.

Rutted: ran to the ladies room, when I returned, the session was over and someone had knocked my stuff onto the floor of the hockey box....and it was all over! I spent a few minutes while the ice was getting zammed...picking up my notes, iPod, etc. No biggie but it did remind me to bring my carry-all next time.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!